Curriculum Making is best done collaboratively.
Â
"We need to construct our own meaning, in our own context, of a collaborative learning community … It is not a checklist of factors, it is a mindset as much as a map... It is taking responsibility for our craft, our own development and that of our students; it is ensuring our future."
Carole Cooper & Julie Boyd, in the South Australian Teaching for Effective Learning Framework Guide.
Find out more
WE HIGHLIGHT TEACHER AGENCY WHEN WORKING WITH AI
Â
Our 4-Phase method of working with AI is all about your agency to make sure that every student makes progress. We view a Large Language Model(LLM) not as a tech tool, but as an AGENT there to support us. The 'teacher-in-the-loop' can benefit from its prodigious capability with his or her relational, ethical, cognitive, imaginative and holistic abilities. Â
Our starting point is your schools' strategic plans
Â
AÂ win-win way of lifting whole school communities.Â
Â
School Strategic Plans tells us where schools see gaps in their curricula. We focus on with supporting the collaborations needed toÂ
- Maximise Academic Achievement and Learning GrowthÂ
- Cultivate Student Wellbeing, Health, and ResilienceÂ
- Foster Student Voice, Agency, and ResponsibilityÂ
- Strengthen Community Partnerships and PathwaysÂ
Phase 1. What does 'Establishing the Shared Baseline' mean?
Â
This phase is all about starting well -Â as much physically as conceptually.
The advent of Large Language Models has been called 'the 4th Industrial Revolution'. It is a very big change to have a technology that can no longer be classified a 'tool' but an 'agent'.
We've created one-page examples of our own experiences when using AI in our teaching workflows.
1.1: We Teachers & Our Curriculum Materials
1.2: We Value Our Context
1.3: Why We Keep 'AI On A Leash'
1.4: We Teachers Straddle Compliance & Creativity
Phase 2. What does 'Co-designing the BIG idea' mean?
Â
If Phase 1 is about taming the information, Phase 2 is about finding the meaning. In this phase of the Curriculum Makers methodology, you shift your focus from simply "managing content coverage" to rigorously designing for student understanding.
We ensure you approach the technology with a designer’s mindset. Here are the core insights that drive Phase 2:
2.1: How AI supports us acknowledging prior knowledge
2.2: When do we infuse AI assistance to map our students' progress?
2.3: How do we use AI to (re)draft a 'scope and sequence'?
Phase 3. What does 'Co-constructing Rigour' mean?
 If Phase 2 is about finding the "Big Idea," Phase 3 is about enabling your students demonstrate that they learned it. In this phase, we tackle the heavy administrative lifting of teaching—rubrics and grading—by shifting your mindset from treating assessment as a retrospective afterthought to treating it as the rigorous anchor of your entire unit.
3.1: How we blended Differentiated Instruction with Backward Design?
3.2: How can AI show us the validity of the summative assessment?
3.3: How we used AI to link formative and summative assessments.
Phase 4. What does 'Collaborative Enactment' mean?
 Traditionally, the "daily lesson plan" is where planning both begins and ends. You stare at a blank proforma, fill in the boxes, and hope it survives contact with the classroom. In the final phase of the Curriculum Makers methodology, you will learn that the daily plan can be responsive and ongoingly vital.
4.1: How do we get AI to 'instantly' help us align learning outcomes?
4.2: How do we get AI to help us find the best sequence?
4.3: How does AI help us to create responsive daily lesson plans?
Special Note: "On telling the dancer from the dance"
 As a new organisation, our visual aids are still in the making (literally with our graphics designer, Francis Lim).Â
We have used AI for drafting concepts based on our research of last 18 months.
Dr De Rossi has written numerous versions of curriculum design ideas based on updating units of work from her own teaching portfolio.Â
These papers and drafts have been used to inform images and processes on this page.  Dr De Rossi is always happy to share and discuss the papers that feed this landing page.